Archive for October 1st, 2011

Another month. September absolutely sped by. Here in the DC area it was a hell of a month with earthquakes and flooding, and on a personal end included getting a new sewer line finally installed at the Casa Del Thurston.

What it didn’t include much of was writing, unfortunately. I’ve been working on a steampunk short story located on Venus that has a lot of promise, but needs better direction than it currently has. In the end it’s one story that could be told in two different directions, which is interesting considering my upcoming project for October.

After the blog post I made a few days ago about my conjoined novel, I’ve been thinking more and more about the status of Capsule. The final conclusion is that it is, and always has been, two novels. The final straw was reading Kraken by China Mieville. It’s a story that goes in a lot of different directions, but at its heart it remains a heist story. Capsule? It’s gone in not only different directions, but has transitioned from being one type of plot line (murder conspiracy) to another (cult kidnapping) with only the most tenuous of ties between the two. It’s had this problem as long as I’ve been writing it. On one hand, I wish I could have seen this sooner, on the other I’m glad I was able to see it at all.

So this month, the process of division starts. I’ll track it in the blog, as I suspect it’ll make for an interesting case study. Scrivener for Windows is going to be my tool of choice, identifying which pieces go in novel A (still called Capsule) and which go into novel B (working title: Post Apocalypse). Really, the entirety of the process will be broken into three parts:

Identifying the pieces that go in each novel.

Identifying what needs to fill in the missing pieces from each half.

Outlining.

Writing.

In an ideal world I’d have one outlined enough to be a Nanowrimo project, but I highly doubt that’ll happen.

Two other big October features:

Capclave! As I’ve attended other writers conventions, the local one here in DC still strikes me as my favorite and the best I’ve attended. If you’re a genre fiction writer in the DC area and you haven’t been to Capclave…why the hell not?

Flashathon! There are still some details to leak in the coming three weeks, and then the event itself three weeks from today. October 22nd. I’m hoping to get a nice turnout for the event here on the blog. I’m hoping even more for some fantastic mental exercise and inspiration.

State of the Writer’s Blog

Blog viewership continues to grow, for which I am eternally grateful. In the ongoing quest to reach eyeballs in all 50 states, I entered September needing six more states. During the month, this blog got its first views from Montana, South Dakota, and Louisiana. That leaves only North Dakota, Arkansas, and Delaware to go. I’m not sure what the next goal is going to be after finally collecting all fifty, but I’ll figure that out when I get there.

State of the Writer’s Beer

No news. Haven’t done any brewing or much drinking this month. Means that bottles we have are that much better aged. Been meaning to crack another bottle of Lazarus.